[jcranberry]

The actual quote.

>Following Brooks we distinguish accidental from essential diculty, but disagree with his premise that most complexity remaining in contemporary systems is essential

There's no silver bullet claim.

[pron]

It very much is a silver bullet claim (following Brooks's definition). But here's the quote I was referring to, in context:

> Brooks asserts ... that the majority... of the complexity that we find in contemporary large systems is of the essential type. We disagree.

That means a silver bullet is possible (against Brooks's claim), and then they go on to describe what they think is a particular silver bullet.